Tennessee beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 16-9 thanks to their revamped defence, who sacked Ben Roethlisberger five times, while Drew Brees passed for 357 yards and scored twice as New Orleans claimed a 23-17 win over Atlanta Falcons.

Kansas City's defense dominated as they inspired a 28-2 victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars while Ryan Tannehill passed for 272 yards and a touchdown as the Miami Dolphins claimed a 23-10 win over the Cleveland Browns.

Frank Gore scored a one-yard touchdown with 5:47 remaining as the San Francisco 49ers beat the Green Bay Packers 34-28.

Off-season acquisition Jared Cook caught two touchdown passes and had a key reception in the drive that led to Greg Zuerlein's tie-breaking field goal with 40 seconds to go as the St Louis Rams edged out the Arizona Cardinals 27-24.

In the final game of the day, the Dallas Cowboys had six turnovers on their way to beating the New York Giants 36-31.

Peyton Manning tied the NFL record with seven touchdown passes as the Denver Broncos opened the new season on Friday with a 49-27 defeat of Super Bowl champions the Baltimore Ravens.

Manning became just the sixth man to achieve the feat and the first since Minnesota's Joe Kapp in 1969.

A 33-minute delay for lightning did little to quell the atmosphere inside Mile High Stadium.

And when the action did get under way the crowd were treated to a masterclass from Manning, who threw two TD passes each to Wes Welker, Julius Thomas and Demaryius Thomas and one to Andre Caldwell.

His Ravens counterpart, Joe Flacco, threw two touchdowns but was also intercepted twice.